Changes and Choices
by Funky In Fishnet
Summary: Future fic. The story of Djaq's pregnancy and how it changes her and those she loves. DjaqAllanWillcentric, also features RobinMarian and MuchEve.
1. Chapter 1

_**Disclaimer:**__ I own nothing, it's all owned by the BBC and Tiger Aspect Productions._

_**Author Notes**__: Set in the future of the outlaws. This could be read as a sequel to my fic 'Taking the Future', but it also works as a stand-alone. There are two more chapters to come. Originally posted at robinhoodbbc lj comm., thanks to the kind folks there for their encouraging and positive words – you make me feel like I'm doing something right. All feedback is welcome, enjoy!_

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When Djaq discovers she is pregnant, the confusion and annoyance outweigh the shock. This was not planned and Djaq does not like surprises concerning the things she is meant to be in control of. She was careful to take the supplement that her father taught her would prevent conception. But, Djaq remembers with a sudden clarity, that sometimes these things have been forgotten in the rush of her recent life and that it was tucked into the back of her mind 'to do later.' It was not the opportune time to become infected by such a foolish English notion – things must be done when you think of them, otherwise situations like this occur. She decides she will blame her husbands for this unasked for change in her. 

But this accident, this lapse in her careful concentration, tugs at something else deep inside Djaq. Once she had cut her hair and become her brother, she threw aside all thoughts of having a family of her own. The very idea of having a child belonged to Safiyah, in the same way that thick long hair she could feel down her back and encompassing skirts and veils did. But of course the boundaries have blurred before; Safiyah also had been betrothed and now Djaq has two husbands. Djaq can feel her identity shifting again and a headache beginning at her temples. She may look like Djaq but Safiyah, it seems, is still very much alive. It is that part of herself that first responded to Allan's suggestion of marriage and she does not regret that, for would she want to live in England without Allan or Will close in her life? It is a thought that makes her stomach drop in the same way that losing her brother did.

It is some weeks later that she is ready to tell her husbands. For it is only now that this new piece of information, which so upset her identity and turned it liquid again, has settled. She is a different person now from the child who was betrothed and followed her father like a shadow, and from the hollow angry girl who took up arms for her brother and landed on England's grey shores.

She has been changed by her time in Sherwood Forest, living in a land and amongst people so foreign to her own, and allowing the unexpected love from Will and Allan to seep into her life. At her core she has her faith and her memories of the family she will never see again and the land she doubts will ever see peace. She is a woman, she no longer denies that, but she has been a man and continues to wear that on the outside. Because Djaq plans to survive, whoever she is. She is a wife now, something she will never allow to define her, and is bound to such opposite men who see Djaq and love the people she is. Soon she will be an _oumm_, a mother. England continues to change her.

She tells Allan and Will when their tavern is quiet before opening time. She has just returned from checking that both Marian and her recently born son Samuel are both healthy at Robin's request. Marian hates to be fussed over so often but Robin insists on Djaq's weekly visits, infected by a father's paranoia that so many men seem to attain in the face of their first newborn. Allan is sorting through the ale bottles behind the counter and Will is silently moving chairs around tables. She speaks her news into the silence with a casual air, her eyes continuing to focus on the medicines she is taking out of her bag as though her words are of little consequence.

"Bloody hell, Djaq!" Allan breaks the quiet as he practically jumps over the counter with a stunned expression which is slowly giving way to excitement. "You're being serious?! We're going to have a kid! Hang on, I thought that couldn't happen? That herb thing you take……"

"It appears that I forgot," she replies with a hint of accusation at them both and their English ways that have been passed on to her. But the tone fades and her smile informs them that she is happy with this.

"We're going to have a kid!"

Allan's joy erupts out of him in a way that Djaq did not believe possible and it causes her smile to broaden. Allan has told her of the childhood he endured (unhappy and hard to Djaq's ears); his parents' absence too soon into his life and he and Tom learning to survive by any means that they could. He is a survivor and she knows that for all his jokes and his lies and ridiculous plans, he will love their child as he never was and will raise it to survive the hard life it will be born into. She is glad of this because she knows how terrible it is for a child to die before its parents. Their child will be a survivor.

Will is silent with wide eyes and looks very young as he gazes at her. But he squeezes Djaq's hand and pulls her to him for a still-hesitant soft kiss and whispered words of awed gladness. He stays close to her throughout the evening when the tavern is full of rowdy patrons and smiles boyishly at her whenever she catches his eyes. Will is constant and steady. He will teach their child what is right and wrong (which Allan will surely challenge by teaching the child to pick pockets). Unlike Djaq and Allan whose identities have changed to protect themselves (Djaq decisively once, and Allan constantly with every lie he has told), Will remains the same to protect his family. He was steady for his father and brother, and he remains this way for his husband and wife too.

The pregnancy is hard on all three of them. Their lives have changed since emerging from Sherwood to become free men and women, but the struggle continues. Nottinghamshire has not magically become a safe and pure place because of a King's return and one bad man's defeat. The outlaws all still battle against those who would suck the county dry for their own comfort and greed. There are many pockets of greedy barons and lords and their supporters who like the way Nottinghamshire had been run under Vaysey and many more would love to kill the former outlaws for what they have done and continue to do. It was this fact that caused Djaq, Will and Allan to choose to live in Nottingham after their wedding. Someone needed to make sure that Sir Edward stayed safe and they found the tavern perfectly placed. It provides them with all that they need and is proving most useful as every evening it is full of rumors and interesting information. It is a scavenger existence, if it was stable and normal Djaq does not think it would work. They were not meant for that.

For the first several months of her pregnancy, Djaq continues traveling around Nottinghamshire on horseback to where she is needed with her medicinal skills. Despite the fact that her skin is a distrusted colour and she wears breeches, the people of the county know her as 'one of Robin's outlaws' and that she can help them when they are sick without asking for payment. When her morning has been filled, she returns to the tavern that has become Allan's pride and joy and assists her husbands in preparing it for opening time.

However, once she begins to show, Will and Allan ask her to stop. She tells them that it is her body and that she will know when she is unable to ride a horse or administer medicine. But when a cruel baron's man-at-arms sinks a dagger into her thigh during a secret night visit to a sick maid's room that forces her under a hood, she concedes that it is perhaps time for her to rest. Her step has become slow, too slow for that man to have gotten so close with his blade. She had felt something inside of her flutter and, although she knows this to be impossible considering how early it is in her pregnancy, her baby moved in response.

She was frightened for her child's safety and the child had known it.

That night, Djaq curls into the shape she knows her child to be and Allan and Will curl around her and comfort her quietly. Will's breath on her neck and Allan's hands on her stomach soothe what has begun gnawing at her. Because now something else has changed – this child's life that she will nurture and shape, she will also be protecting and keeping it safe. Safiyah is beginning to feel maternal.

_-to be continued…chapter 2/3 coming soon._


	2. Chapter 2

_**Disclaimer**__: I own nothing of which I write le sigh. It all belongs to the BBC and Tiger Aspect Productions_

_**Author Notes**__: You know the drill – this is a future fic and will probably turn out to be AU. There's one more chapter to go, I hope y'all enjoy. All feedback welcome._

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Allan enjoys talking to her swollen stomach. He tells their growing child stories from his childhood (many of them highly inflated and improbable, Djaq is sure) and all about what he has planned for when the baby finally joins them. Djaq finds the sight of Allan propped up beside her on an elbow as he spins a tale through her skin oddly touching and she tells him he will be a good father. Gratitude ebbs away at something darker in his eyes. When Will is not working at the carpenter's one morning, she finds him outside the back of the tavern carving a beautiful bassinette for their child. He is a little embarrassed to be discovered but Djaq runs her fingers over the patterns Will has painstakingly cut into the wood and kisses him, pressing herself and their baby against his body. On the foundations the three of them have together, she feels as though something else is being built. 

When the child Safiyah had thought of marriage and family, this was not the image she conjured. But Djaq decides that what she has now is preferable. Where she grew up, marriage was an arrangement by parents for their children. It could be agreeable but that was all, love was not expected. The English do have peculiar ideas for many things but Djaq believes that perhaps they are right in their desire to marry for emotion. She thanks Allah every day when she greets the sun for the strange and uneven family he has blessed her with, something she never asked for or expected but fits her well.

"It is good to see that you are slowing down, Djaq," Marian's lips twitch with a smile when she comes to visit Djaq one afternoon.

Although Djaq spends most of time at the tavern now, it has not halted her medicinal work. People bring their troubles to the tavern's back room and Marian continues to visit her for check-ups for herself and Samuel. They spend many afternoons together with cups of that sweet tea Marian is so fond of and that Djaq is growing to appreciate. Marian is still every inch the lady, even with a drooling gurgling baby clasped to her, but Djaq has found a surprising solace in talking to the Lady of Locksley. Female companionship has never interested Djaq, male company was always preferable to her from her youngest age and she was not interested in conversing with Marian who appeared so delicate and sheltered.

But Marian has lived a life in similar aspects to Djaq. She too has become a man to fight for what she believes in and Djaq feels a kinship with this elegant and determined woman who has exasperated and fascinated Robin for so many years.

"Ha!" Djaq snorts at Marian's words, humor in her eyes. "You have an estate to run and a child to raise, but you and Robin still take turns to disguise yourselves in mask and cape to try and keep all of Nottinghamshire well fed and healthy. I do not think you should talk of slowing down."

Marian nods her head in concession, her own smile softening as she quietens Samuel's murmurs. The Night Watchman still lives through her and her husband, because there are still starving villages and dying families no matter how fair her father's rule as Sheriff is and Marian has learnt to work outside the system. Djaq looks at Marian's child and wonders how long it will take before his parents' genes compel him to fight for the poor and wretched. Will the child be wild and reckless or cool and calm, or an alarming blend of both perhaps? How long before her own child finds a cause that will change it and shape it as it has its parents? Blood will out.

Soon Eve is visiting her too for check-ups, newly pregnant herself. She is flushed and happy with a pride to her posture and voice. All of the outlaws like this blonde and sharp woman who fights back at Robin when he takes Much for granted. Much still forgets that he's no longer a manservant but a lord and Eve remembers and refuses to let her husband take the needlessly harsh words that Robin throws at his closest friend when he is frustrated and angry with life. Yes, Djaq finds she likes Eve very much and the three women spend many hours discussing impetuous stubborn men and their ridiculous plans (probably much in the same way their husbands discuss troublesome wives and their strong opinions and stronger wills).

Djaq realises, as Eve pours more tea and Marian prepares to feed Samuel, that these times are familiar to her. Her mother would often sit and talk to her friends as Djaq and Safiyah learnt from the Koran and her husband was out healing the sick. Safiyah was always bored by the conversations that her mother enjoyed so much, such trivial uninteresting subjects. She chaffed at being indoors when she could be learning by her father's side, while her mother could not understand this thirst for medical knowledge that was the domain of men. But now Djaq understands why her mother valued these times - because they are safe and comfortable as Marian and Eve understand and do not judge.

"I'm beginning to think you enjoy being a girl," Robin teases her when he arrives to accompany Marian home.

Djaq rolls her eyes at him and allows Marian to tell him what a deeply idiotic thing he has said. To Robin, Djaq will always be one of his men, despite the fact that she no longer binds her breasts and now carries a child. She thanks Allah for her two husbands who love the mix of genders that she is.

The pregnancy progresses as so many do. Djaq has helped many women in Nottinghamshire's villages through their pregnancies and resulting labors and knows the stages and progressions and the many variations of what will happen. However, as expected as they are, she is unsettled by the changes in her own body and behaviour and how she cannot control them. She cannot help being impatient with the way her body hampers her movement or how her moods become slippery and quick. She knows that she says harsh words to many people who do not deserve them and hates how out of control she feels. She is used to being in control of her own actions. Her father's teachings, from after a time she watched him tend to a heavily pregnant lady, come back to her.

"The moods of women carrying children will become irritable and hard, especially during their final months. The hormones released by the process will cause them to behave out of character."

Djaq has often repeated words such as these to fretful husbands worried about their wives' sudden changes in behavior and mood. She finds that she has an entirely new perspective now and thinks that her father's words cannot encompass the range of emotions that wildly riot through her nor how her body betrays her with aches and sores and slow steps. Her father never went through this, how could he know what women are put through for the sake of a child? How idiotic that women are kept from medicinal work when surely they are the ones who could understand this torture better than any man could.

The cool analytical part of herself that so dominates her actions separates her from the pain and assesses her condition. Her personality is swinging wildly thanks to the chemicals pounding around her brain, boiling like soup. It feels as though this new personality, the child that is growing inside of her, is taking over from the inside inch by inch. It is waging its own private war on its mother. But she wrests for a grip on these thoughts, knowing that such ridiculous ideas are mere figments of her condition and rationalizes through them. She will not be torn apart or driven mad by her own body.

The frustration Djaq feels so much of the time (at not being able to move freely or be out helping people, at her body's ballooning and her personality's temperance) looses her mother tongue and when she speaks, she now speaks in Arabic, voicing what she usually says in her mind before translating it into her husbands' language. Great strings of words that hardly anyone else understands on these distant shores is a release that Djaq comes to value and she refuses to translate, enjoying this private and secret vent. It is something that she can still control.

Allan and Will become her frequent targets when her mood is stretched beyond her control's limits because they are closest and trying to help and she feels closed in and defensive by all that is happening to her. They do not understand what she is going through or feeling, their attempts to irritate her, and she knows how to hurt them. Allan fights back, unable to shrug and laugh off her accusations because they are rooted in truth, and more than once he chooses to sleep behind the tavern counter on blankets in order to cool off. The mornings bring awkward apologies from both sides, Djaq maintaining that it is her problem – it is her own body that is causing her to hurt one of the people she loves most.

Fights with Will are one-sided; he stays silent and absorbs her words until the mood passes and he uses his skilled hands to rub the sore spots away from her back, as his father did for his mother when she was carrying Luke. When Allan's usual teasing doesn't make her suddenly snap, he makes her laugh and sings her his ridiculous songs.

It is this period of the pregnancy which is hardest for all three of them; Djaq knows that her husbands feel powerless to help her deal with mood swings that consume her and her frustration at her immobility. But, despite her explosive outbursts at them, she finds that Will and Allan are a support and a help with every touch of their hands and every smile. Will offers his arm every time she stands to walk and Allan surprises her with careful gatherings of herbs that she is now unable to hunt for herself. The other outlaws are not strangers either and the tavern becomes the place that they meet in for meals and serious meetings about enemies and actions and starving peasants. Feeling as though she is doing something and contributing towards the fight, Djaq feels something like peace inside a skull that no longer feels like her own.

One night, after the outlaws split off home to their corners of Nottinghamshire, Djaq tells Will and Allan about the strong possibility that she will be having twins.

_-TBC_


	3. Chapter 3

_**Disclaimer**__: You know the drill – it all belongs to the BBC bods and Tiger Aspect Productions._

_**Author Notes**__: The last part of this bizarre fic. I'd love to hear all opinions via the review button (points to bottom of page). Hope y'all enjoyed it._

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"This is impossible!" Djaq gasps to Marian. 

It is the first English she has spoken since going into labor. Her contractions started early this morning and she has been held captive by them in Marian and Robin's bedchamber since Will and Allan got her there (amid much worrying and fumbling and scared expressions). They are both downstairs with the others where, according to Eve, there is no talking only pacing and worried expressions. Robin is doing the pacing. Djaq laughed at this image, perhaps now her former leader sees her as a woman.

Marian shakes her head with an encouraging smile as she focuses on what she can see and Djaq can't. Djaq asked both Marian and Eve to deliver her babies. They have all become paranoid about physicians after Pitts and Marian and Eve are the only ones she trusts to be competent in this task. Marian's composure is not as complete as it usually is, she appears a little overwhelmed, but she is calm and sure in her movements and Djaq can tell that she is in capable hands. There is not much that fazes Marian and clearly she knows what she's doing. Djaq does not know where this knowledge comes from, but she is grateful for it now. If she could, Djaq would deliver her own babies but Marian is the next best thing in this impossibility.

Eve is wiping the sweat from her face and attempting to keep her cool. Djaq is grateful for any efforts to ease this lingering and sticky discomfort and tries to let her friend know this as the pain spikes up again. Amid squeezing Eve's hand and pushing with all the breath and effort that she can, Djaq concentrates on a single thought to separate herself from the pain. It is the only way in which she can deal with the rolling waves that threaten to drown her and Djaq refuses to go under. She focuses on her thoughts of symmetry; the pain in childbirth and the pain brought by death. Allah curves lives into circles and seals them with pain; the pain of the mother at birth passes onto the child as it dies. It is the sort of thought she will expand on with Will later, because Allan doesn't think of death as it reminds him of his failure with Tom, whilst Will sees these things too in his constant observation of life.

"They're going to arrive very soon," Marian tells her. "The pain won't last for much longer."

Djaq gasps in breath, feeling as though she will never push anything so unwieldy out from inside of her. It is impossible. But her logical side triumphs again, reminding her that she is being ridiculous because she has seen it happen many times before and her mother survived birthing twins. As the contractions heighten, Djaq clings tightly to other focusing thoughts, her current situation pulling her towards thoughts of families. She remembers the story of Marian's mother that she heard from Will one night when they were still in Sherwood. About the beautiful Lady Fitzwater who only just survived bringing Marian into this world and was forever weakened by it, unable to give her daughter any siblings. It was several years later that she died from influenza, the sickness taking quickly to her bones through paper-thin flesh. Perhaps it is this fact that makes Robin crowd Marian so, determined that she will have every wound carefully seen to and cared for. More likely it is because of his mother. Djaq doesn't know what happened to her, Will cannot remember her, and Djaq has a feeling that the Lady of Locksley died giving Robin life. It strikes her oddly that their mothers' deaths are a bond between Robin and Marian; they are able to feel what the other has lost. She does not know about Much's family, perhaps Robin is all he has of that.

These thoughts that keep her teetering away from the pain are swept aside when her first child demands entry into the world now and Djaq pushes with determination, eyes squeezed shut and clamped-tight teeth. For she is not only pushing her child out, she is also pushing out the alien hormones that have taken her over and with that she is regaining her control.

Then there is a pain that feels as though she is being split in two and then happy glowing expressions on Marian and Eve's faces at the baby's cry. The sense of relief is almost overwhelming. Djaq has cut stillborn babies from their mothers too many times.

"You have a boy, Djaq," Marian's delight infuses her words and warps her formal manner into something slightly giddy.

Djaq smiles and thinks of her brother and Allan's and Will's. It is more symmetry and it is right for this family to have a son as brothers have shaped them all. From her mouth pours more Arabic, prayers of thanks to Allah for her son's safe delivery.

"It's almost over," Eve reminds her, stroking her hair off her forehead.

The contractions start again just as Djaq catches her breath and her second child makes a remarkably quick entry into the world. Just like that, it is all over and Djaq is steadying her own breaths and watching Eve coo over the tiny children. Emotions that belong to Safiyah are threatening to swamp her and she can feel how the labors have left her exhausted and weak. But the pregnancy has been seen through to its conclusion and Djaq feels her control sliding back into her fingers. Relief glides through her too; she will be herself again and she will be in control. Her father's words have been given a different perspective from first hand experience. She has the advantage over his skills in this now, because he never felt the rush of hormones that became her or the skin-splitting pain of producing life.

"Let me see them," she asks quietly.

Marian and Eve carefully place two soft cloth-wrapped bundles in the crooks of her arms and leave to share the news and find the fathers. Djaq stares at her children and carefully checks them over as she would any newborn. Every part of them is whole and right and they are strong for surviving. So is she, not many survive birthing twins in this land. Djaq knows that she is lucky that Marian is experienced and capable and that she herself is made of stronger fibres. It makes the children even more beautiful to her, that they have already proved that they are survivors. Pride fills her then as she strokes her daughter's downy head and her son yawns with a whimper.

"Welcome to the world, my _zahras_," Djaq speaks words that she knows they cannot comprehend yet but she speaks them anyway, feeling more hormones shift off her skin as she does. "You have done so well already. I am your _oumm_ and there are many strange people here who will love you and teach you things to keep you alive."

"Wow," Allan appears in the doorway, a huge smile spreading over his face. "You did it!"

"And these are your _abs_," Djaq continues as her husbands step into the room. "They are also strange and Allan will sing to you very badly."

"Oy! My singing is tuneful and well-loved throughout the villages of this land," Allan protests, pressing a hand to the back of her head and giving her an excited kiss.

"By people who are deaf," Will mutters then casts a quick look at the babies. "They're not, are they?"

"They are fine and whole," Djaq reassures him with as much of a smile as she can muster under the tiredness. "Very beautiful, yes?"

"You're beautiful, Djaq," Will tells her with a serious smile as he reaches her side.

He sits on the bed beside her and slides an arm around her shoulders, anchoring her. The awe and love in his eyes sends altogether pleasant tingles throughout her exhausted body and Djaq thinks again on how this man who can create such pleasing things with his hands finds her beautiful too. This warms her and she finds a similar look in Allan's expression when he catches her eye. He is bobbing down to peer at the children who have honeyed skin and tiny fingers and are altogether fascinating. All the more because they come from the three of them, of course they do, and Djaq touches her finger with the wedding band on to her son's cheek.

The daughter they name Sophie at Will's suggestion and Djaq smiles because Safiyah turned into someone quite different. The son becomes Robert, a close tribute to the outlaw who brought the three of them together. He will not be Jack or Tom because it is not fair to saddle their son with a ghost's name.

As the children grow, Djaq becomes strong again and in turn helps her offspring to do the same. They are inquisitive babies and once they can talk, Sophie babbles happily whilst Robert is altogether quieter. Soon Djaq is drawn back into her medicinal work, and the children are cared for and sewn into the rush of the family's lives as the highest priorities. There is always someone caring for them, always an outlaw because this land is not safe. Perhaps one day, Djaq thinks, they will be made to choose. Their children could be taken, ransomed for cruel reasoning and greed. It is a thought that all the outlaws live with in their families and Djaq knows that the choice could tear them apart.

Allan talks to them like he does to adults, his words peppered with half-truths, and he makes them laugh with his silly songs and noises.

"They're better than you lot, they like my jokes," he says happily, when Sophie giggles one night before bedtime.

"That is because they cannot understand you," is Djaq's reply before Allan tackles her and Will curves an arm around her waist.

Will is carving little figurines for when they are older and not tempted to chew on their toys. Soon, he has created wooden images of the outlaws and there is even a Sheriff and a Gisborne as well as many guards. Djaq can envision battles being recreated on the kitchen floor. It will teach the children tactics and planning and the art of an ambush.

"They are beautiful," declares Marian when all the outlaws gather in the tavern one late afternoon.

"And growing fast," adds Robin, watching as Sophie chews at his cape and Will scoops her away carefully, checking her mouth for threads. "They will be quite a handful for you."

"We've got strength in numbers," laughs Allan, as he looks at a quiet Robert who is sat beside Djaq, clutching a fistful of her breeches securely. "Born for trouble, weren't you, Robbie?"

They are growing and Djaq is interested in who they will become. Sophie already has wide dark eyes and Robert watches carefully whenever his mother prepares medicine. Much says he is very glad that his daughter is not as loud as Sophie, who chooses that moment to sing a song that Allan sings when he has drunk too much and that little girls should not know. Much repeats his assertion, looking over to where his daughter Eleanor is clasped sleepily in Eve's arms and Samuel is watching her closely. Djaq thinks it will not be long before Robin is suggesting the idea of a betrothal and that, even if he jokes, the idea will linger in the parents' minds. However, Samuel will have too much rebellion in his blood to follow even his own rebellious father's arrangements and will most likely disagree when he is old enough to understand any plans for his future.

Djaq knows children in her lands trained to be assassins from the moment they could hold a blade steady, of children sold in the streets because they are all their parents can give to survive, children taught to hate. Her own dear _akh_ who had her name first and was cut down in a war to keep their land and their faith their own. It is not so different in England. She thinks of Luke Scarlett who is only a name to her and remembers Tom-O-Dale swinging lifelessly from a rope. At night she sometimes sees her children's faces there instead and chokes down bile and pulls her husbands closer to her. Some nights it is Allan or Will who have similar thoughts and she is their comfort.

When they are older, Sophie and Robert will choose their paths when the time arrives. But they will be prepared. They will be taught about the past wars and the battles the outlaws still fight and the countries that continue to be ravaged by greed and narrow visions. They will learn Arabic and English, and long bow and sword, because their birth and their parentage is unique and there is great strength in this. Djaq knows this with a clarity that comes from both sides of her identity. In order to move forward, you must learn what has gone before.

"_Oumm_," Djaq glances down at Robert's voice and he raises his arms to her. "Lift me?"

Djaq smiles and sweeps her son up into her arms. Sophie is giggling at something Allan is saying as he tickles her wrist whilst Will watches over his husband's shoulder. As Djaq watches, Robert silent and content in her arms, she is reminded that they will not have their children forever; they are only theirs for a short while. Trying to hold on to them for longer will be unhealthy and it will bring sorrow and wounds that will not heal. But she will give them what she can for their journeys. She will teach them the skills she learnt from her father, as Will will share what he inherited, and Allan what he learnt in order to survive.

It is important that they learn that there is another way in a land bridled by rules and sucked dry by taxes. They must be taught that there is a freedom, hidden and dangerous, and that there is something that they can do about what they see. But what the children choose to do will be their choice, Djaq is determined that in this land of little freedom, she will give them what she can of it. And as she gazes at Sophie and kisses the spot behind Robert's ear, it feels like a promise.

_-end_


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